For those activists, community organizers, and White House Staffers surveilling this site, I give you a Vision of Dear Leader, as prepared by my friend, the incomparable Jaybear:

And because you can never have too much ridicule of a leader who scorns the citizens he serves when they don’t “see it his way”, another photoshop of Dear Leader’s freinds, courtesy of The Rott:

And finally, from the rapier-like wit of my fellow moron, Cuffy Meigs, we have the Dear Leader, talking out of both sides of his mouth:

Now, I’m sure you faithful followers of the juggeared messiah want to tell me to buck up because “Elections have consequences!”

You’re right. They do. So does audacious arrogance, contempt for the average tax-paying citizen, disrespect for the law, and betrayal.

Don’t expect to see me in the Hopey-Changey gulag. NOT.GOING.TO.HAPPEN.

You White House staffers don’t like what you see? Send an email to wrath@Constitutional.citizen. If you have trouble with that, go let Sheriff Slo-Joe out of the closet you have him locked in so he can help you make sure you’re typing in the correct internet phone number.

…as we got to bask in the glow of President Hope-N-Change’s witch hunt torches. After the solicitation for Americans to report other Americans to the White House if their opinion on the government’s latest power grab Health Care Reform proposal did not conform to the official lies that Dear Leader and the CongressStooges seem Hellbent to feed us. In case you wish to report me, the address is flag@whitehouse.gov, but I am fairly certain that they already have a report or two on me anyway.

Of course, after you solicit UnAmerican behavior as part of a coordinated effort to intimidate those who have the wisdom to see what you’re serving, and decline the Craptacular cocktail you want the people to drink, how do you compound the error? By slandering the average American citizen who has caught wind of what you are up to, and has bothered to call their elected officials to account for their arrogance and willingness to sell them out. In a stunning example of irony, the DNC has issued a statement alleging that these angry citizens are actually professional provocateurs in the pay of the RNC. This from the party that is completely unafraid to avail itself of the “rent-a-mob” services cheerfully provided by ACORN and the SEIU. Surprised at being caught with their hands in the cookie jar, many of these elected officials have now resorted to staging their “town hall meetings” with constituents, by planting the questioners, and only allowing questions from those plants, or going to “phone-only” meetings, where they can control the dialogue and avoid seeing the faces they are betraying. Some have graciously accepted the political cover offered by the AFL-CIO head, who made its members available to show up at these meetings. Under these conditions, it seems to be very easy to stack a room with union thugs, easily identified by their t-shirts, and use intimidation and violence against those who are not showing the proper ‘civil discourse’, also known as meek acquiescence.

And instead of admitting his mistakes, where was President Leg-Tingler in all of this? Waiting for TOTUS to feed him a characteristic Double-Down, in which he could insult these citizens even further. I can only think that he is extraordinarily confident in the ability of HellCare to allow the government to so successfully offer the “end-of-life counseling, Chicago-style” and liberal use of involuntary commitment proceedings against those so mentally ill that they resist all of the Democratic initiatives to force us to swallow this poison pill that he simply doesn’t care who he alienates. Really. That kind of confidence is what I might expect a sitting President to become so emboldened as to start speaking like this:

…

Watching that leaves my emotions nicely divided. Right between rage and disgust. I think if they keep bodyslamming the First Amendment, they will unleash Hell. I don’t relish the thought. I don’t particularly want to see that in my lifetime, or my sons’ lifetime, but the government has transitioned from a quiet and covert contempt for its citizens, to an vocal and overt one, and I know an awful lot of people who are getting tired of it, including myself.

And for the record, the “people that created the problem” are the politicians who established Medicare and Medicaid in the first place, because not only have the two delivered poor care inefficiently for decades, with plenty of graft, waste, and fraud for people who figured out how to game the system, it also helped plant the seed that has bloomed into the tenacious and fellacious notions that healthcare is a right, and that government should pay for it.

One of the brighter spots I have had lately is my dalliance with Facebook. It has been fun to reconnect with old classmates, and friends in other parts of the country. I have also reconnected with family, but some of the most interesting things have happened in exchanges with people I don’t know in the comment threads of people I do know. I had one such experience today. I found it illuminating because my conversation with this person, let’s call them beta, helped me to focus my own beliefs in a way that I found surprising. I will share this exchange with you, with the names changed, and the spelling corrected, for ease of reading.

The thread started with a link to the Gateway Pundit post on the conservative citizens hurt by the Union thugs at the town hall meetings, and the comment “Now the violence begins…”

Commentor 1:

I am telling you sir that we are at the doorstep of a major revolt the likes of which our illustriously historic president is so unprepared for.

Friend:

To which I reply, “Sir, lock and load.”

beta:

Over health care. OVER HEALTH CARE. We’ve come to screaming at each other over HEALTH CARE….Amazing.

Friend:

Tip of the iceberg.

Commentor 2:

This should surprise no one, the white house asked for people to fight back twice as hard, I guess they decided they needed to hurt us.

beta:

Yes, I’m sure that’s EXACTLY what they meant….

Commentor 2:

me too

Commentor 1:

But just don’t do a lot of talking. He thinks folks liek us created this mess but do NOT under any circumstances does he want to hear a lot of talking.

Commentor 2:

That does it ************, I am reporting you to the fish list! Let’s see….To: Flag@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Obama’s fish list add on…

:-)

beta:

Unless you are a health care policy creator of the past 20 years or so, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think you’ve created the mess. To be fair, all of us are responsible for the problems and solutions regarding health care.

Commentor 2:

So then no one really needs to shut up, right? Since none of the protesters really wrote past health care policies?

beta:

I won’t shut up if you won’t shut up. But let’s try to keep it civil. Screaming doesn’t accomplish anything.

Commentor 2:

fair enough…

Me:

Over health care. OVER HEALTH CARE. We’ve come to screaming at each other over HEALTH CARE….Amazing.

No, actually over the unprecedented tyranny and theft that would, by necessity, have to be part and parcel of such a plan, and the blatant usurpation of powers that are not and never have been assigned to government, and the dogged determination of our elected officials to impose this generational theft and power grab despite the wishes of their constituents, the audations arrogance of them substituting their wishes for any and all principals of responsible governance, and for the contemptable practice of vilifying those same constituents who dare to express their displeasure with their government’s deaf ears and casual disregard for the Constitution and the laws of economics. As long as they continue to act in such a blatantly disrespectful, and corrupt manner, this cannot end well if we will remain a free people.

beta:

For every person who thinks the government is overstepping, there is one who thinks they aren’t. Not everyone thinks the government is disrespectful. I actually talked with [Friend] the other day about how I don’t consider government to be the big evil so many do.

But I’m not going to scream at you. We can’t find common ground screaming at each other.

Me:

I wasn’t screaming. I’m typing very calmly, but I deal with the government in its myriad of forms daily for a living. I see the connections that are currently formed, I see the expansion of executive power, and the extra-Constitutional acts that have been rubberstamped by a Congress unwilling to even pretend to be outraged that they could not have read the bills they pass. I see an adminstration that has promised many, many times “transparency” that has yet to be forthcoming about even basic information, and that has threatened and cajoled owners of private property and captains of industry. This same administration that keeps appointing people who advocate positions and beliefs antithetical to the American Experience, and who cannot seem to pay the taxes that it expects of us. Corruption, suspect furtiveness, and flagrant disrespect of the rule of law should not be rewarded with the acquiescenece of more money and power that they were never entitled to in the first place.

You may not think that the government is disrespectful, but when it becomes that clear that its interests are not the nation’s interests, “disrespectful” seems to be a very tame characterization of its attitude towards the people it has forgotten it serves.

beta:

I think you and I disagree on nearly everything, and that’s fine, the only point I’ll say is that when someone says “American Experience” I tend to cringe as I think it gets raised as a banner in the “I’m right, you’re wrong, I’m a patriot, you obviously could care less” argument. I don’t buy into it.

And I still don’t think government is all bad.

Me:

I can understand your objection to my use of a term that I feel needs no definition but you do, because, I suspect, we do not have the same frame of reference, but I would find an explanation of why you feel the statement is wrong much more productive in a search for a “common ground” than a generic statement projecting an intention that I have not given voice to as an objection to its use.

Me:

And for the record, I did not say that I thought all government is bad. I pointed directly to very serious deficiencies and expressed the opinion that rewarding this bad behavior could not lead to a good end.

I’m sorry if anything had to say on this offends you, but I prefer living as a free man, rather than a servant to a medicocracy determined to bring me down to the level of the least able and the least ambitious of us, so that we may all be “equal”. Life as a servant to my government is not was what promised to me in the Constitution and its Amendments, and I get a little passionate when elected officials think my birthright is subject to their agendas.

beta:

You don’t offend me at all! I always appreciate someone being willing to share what informs their opinions.

The American Experience (aside from a great PBS show) is (to me) a fallacy as I don’t believe there is one quintissential experience that defines our country. My American Experience is surely different from yours or my grandfather’s or (insert any other person here). We aren’t a homogenized nation.

Commentor 1:

This [beta] can’t be for real…can [they]? [They] actually think that there is something wrong with our healthcare? [They] are a believer of that crap? “all of us are responsible for the problems and solutions regarding health care”. You are kidding right?
Pass her the koolaid and oh, be careful what you wish for….you just may get it!

Me:

I see. Your focus is too small. When I think “American Experience”, I think about what sets us apart from other nations, and oddly enough, that doesn’t include a litany of our collective “crimes and offenses” that many on the left are thrilled to see Dear Leader apoligizing for in foreign cities, to people to whom no apology is owed. What I am … Read Moretalking about is the philosophy and history that makes people of exceptional ambition and talent come here to forge their dreams into reality. By the same token, “American Exceptionalism” is the manifestation of those characteristics that have up until recent decades, made this country the seat of opportunity and possibility. Again, I don’t see this as anything to be ashamed of, and I refuse to let Dear Leader use it as a derisive term when he preaches to his faithful without challenging his apparent contempt for something that, as the leader of this country, he should be exceedingly proud of, yet apparently is not.

beta:

Yes [Commentor 1], I do think there is something wrong with healthcare in this country. We (as a whole) spend more for crappier performance. We (as in my spouse and myself) worry that I won’t be permanently employed before my COBRA is up, as there’s no way with their health (ie, pre-existing conditions) we’ll get health coverage. We (as in a lot of us on the left) aren’t scared of the word “Ration” as we know that we already ARE rationed – by our health insurance companies.

I don’t drink kool-aid – I live reality.

As to American Exceptionalism…it’s not a philosophy I espouse, nor would I expect our president to. I think this country is amazing, I have no plans to move elsewhere – I also think that we can be better.

Me:

Crappier performance? I beg to differ. When I or my wife or children need a procedure, treatment, referal or consult, it gets done. Quickly, competently, and at a reasonable cost, and yes, I know this because we “have skin in the game”, due to a not unreasonable deductable, and a percentage of the cost which is allotted to us, so yes, we pay attention, and yes, we have questioned charges in the past. I agree that pre-existing conditions are an issue for people, and that it could be handled better. I don’t believe that more government involvment is the answer, because there is an undeniable track record which demonstrates that this drives up costs, it doesn’t lower them, and if government starts competing with private providers, it has an unfair advantage, because its pool of resources is not limited to what it takes in for providing the service, and it can charge below market rates to undercut competitors because it can(and will) subsedize the shortfall by taking even more of the fruits of my labor, your labor, Billy William’s and Bobby Robert’s labor…you get the point. Healthcare is not a right, but due to existing laws, it is treated as one, which is why no one is ever denied healthcare. Don’t believe me? Go to an Emergency Room sometime, have a seat, and observe for a while. Hospitals cannot turn people away. Medicare and Medicaid provide care for the old and the indigent. It does so in a woefully inefficient fashion, with all the fraud and abuse endemic to any government entitlement program, but I would expect no less from an entity that could not manage to turn a profit with a Nevada brothel. You may think you’re rationed now, but you might consider what the utility of universal healthcare is to you when you can rarely use it, or will be denied treatment because of a pre-existing condition, your age, or other factors. And the quality of care you can expect from doctors and other health care professionals once the government sets price controls on their “care”?

Did you ever see how mail is handled?

As for not espousing “American Exceptionalism”, that is your choice. I cannot ignore the observation of how blessed I am to have been born a citizen of what still, for a litlle while, remains one of the most free countries ever to exist.

You finally said something we can agree upon: We CAN do better. The difference between us is that I know giving my freedoms and money to the government is not the answer, and forcing back out of our lives and wallets, and strictely confining it to the powers we gave it in the Constitution is the answer.

"I want these “…and I’m a communist” dumbshits to have a Coming to Jesus moment that they will NEVER forget. I want them staring in to the eyes of every American who knows that government has very specifically designated roles, and are fed-up to their eyeballs with the overeaching, paternalistic, oppressive monster that the Left (with help from the establishment Right) set loose on us. I want those greedy, lazy, control-freaky bastards quaking with fear when they are met with an electorate determined to wrest their liberties, including the right to fail, back from a government that would enslave us all to the service of a soul-killing mediocrity. I want their asses so horrifiyingly and memorably whipped that the mere memory will cow a century’s worth of socialist/communist/marxist acoyltes into an ashamed silence."
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"When a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we no longer have a Constitution, we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is according to their own views of what it ought to mean."--Justice Curtis, Dissent, Dred Scott v. Sanford

"The very idea of power, and the right of the people to establish government, presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. All obstructions to the execution of its laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberations and actions of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency."- George Washington

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
-Plato

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
-Plato